It is very difficult for a 19-year-old piano prodigy and small town girl who is influenced by Harry Chapin and Nine Inch Nails to “make it” into the big leagues. However, Lennon Murphy has achieved that and way more: she is here to teach America that women can be beautiful, gifted, and insightful, while also being tough, metal rock machines.
Lennon can rock harder than any tough, backwards-cap guy singing about strippers and cars. By simply using her voice, her deeply intimate lyrics, and her strong musical aptitude, she could let you into her world, make you feel the way she does and completely alter the way you think about young women in the music industry.
Her debut album 5:30 Saturday Morning was released on September 11. The first single, “Brake of Your Car,” reveals the agonies of love caught in between a haunting, synthesizer-loaded metal beat. Even more compelling are the tracks “My Beautiful” and “Morning.” The first achieves the perfect blend of distorted guitars and delicate piano playing, while “Morning” exemplifies the distinctiveness of her sound and lyrics. According to Lennon, this is “the only song in the album I listen to.” While in the process of recording, she tried to make “an album that people could relate to, not limited to anybody.”
Lennon embarked a couple of months ago on a cross-country tour that she hopes will never end. “Touring is all I love to do. The best is getting to play every night.” Her band members, manager, dog, 9 year-old sister Mary and a couple of friends accompany her in the road from start to finish; they are almost like a large family. She admits to amusing herself on the tour bus by “watching Law & Order and playing with the dog because she is bored with everything else on the bus.”
Last Friday, November 9, Lennon performed the last show of her tour with Alice Cooper in Pompano Beach, Florida. Although she looks like a defiant gothic queen at first, the more she talks, the more tender and sweeter the future rock star becomes. The same happens with her music. With only one listen, songs like “These Days,” “Property of Goatf***er” and “Couldn’t Breathe” would make anyone notice the metal wall of noise and dark lyrics, but after the second, all the melodious facets of her sound and the genuine hurt in her voice come to shine.
Lennon will play with Tesla on December 1 at Orbit in Boyton Beach. She plans to continue her tour as far as it takes her. “I’ve accomplished all my goals. If it all ended, I would still be happy.” Hopefully it never will.